Hope. Ineffable Hope

 

May 29, 2022

Hope. Ineffable Hope in Christ

 

The period of Israel’s judges was a dark, frightful, bloody period in Israel’s early history. Idolatry, murder, child sacrifice, sexual immorality that would rival Sodom and Gomorrah – not too unlike modern America, if you have been paying attention to the news these last several decades. It was a period in which, as the writer of Judges repeats several times, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25)

 

For more than 300 years – and some think more than 400 years – the Israelites wallowed in cycles of sin followed by hopelessness, followed by hope, and followed again by sin. On and on, generation after generation.

 

The events in the book of Ruth take place during those dark years of the judges. And I turn our attention to two women in particular recorded in this book – Naomi and Ruth. As St Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, the things written for us in the Old Testament were “written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”  (Romans 15:4) And it is hope and encouragement and perseverance that we can learn for ourselves by their examples.

 

Hope and encouragement.

 

If you have paid any attention to the news over the last decade, you know we are living in a frighteningly darkening time. Our 2022 culture in growing increasingly wicked. It evil has invaded many of our homes, our schools, businesses, places of government, and many of our churches. You might say – and you would not be wrong to say it – the book of Judges reads like the evening news. But if we let God move in our hearts and our spirits, then what He can teach us in this book of Ruth WILL encourage us to persevere through it all and be victorious over it all.

 

I will now read the entire first chapter of the book of Ruth. We need to hear the entire chapter so we can have sufficient context to make sense of what is happening to Naomi, to Ruth – and to what it means for salvation history:

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. ² The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there. ³ Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.

⁶ She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food. ⁷ She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

⁸ Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. ⁹ May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

¹⁰ They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, ¹³ would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.” ¹⁴ Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵ Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

¹⁶ But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.

¹⁹ The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

²² So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. (Ruth 1:1-22, Christian Standard Bible Version)

Let’s look quickly at those first five verses. They give us only the briefest outline of what happened to this family. A famine in Israel. Elimelech and Naomi take their two sons to another country to survive the famine. In the ten years they live there, Elimelech dies. The two sons marry Moabite women, and then the two sons die.

 

We all know Naomi’s life was not as impassive as it seems from the way her last ten years are recorded in those five verses. Like the dates on a gravestone, one for the day of birth, the other for the day of death, but what does that dash represent? Some of you have heard the poem by Linda Ellis, “The Dash.”  Here are the first few paragraphs:

---------

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on the tombstone, from the beginning...to the end

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

That dash represents all the time that they spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

------

Naomi’s ‘dash’ was now one of bitterness, sorrow, mourning, confusion, and perhaps even anger – yes, anger at God. Why else would she say to Ruth: My life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”  And why would she say to the women who greeted her on their return to Bethlehem: ²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara . . . for the Almighty has made me very bitter. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi [meaning ‘pleasant’], since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” [‘Mara’ means bitter]

If things in your past went the way of Naomi – did you feel the way she felt? Even a little? Angry? Bitter? Maybe frightened by the way life turned against you? And if you have – did you wonder almost out loud, “When will the other shoe drop? When will God finish His assault against me?”

I know people who’ve had those thoughts. And as some of you know, I experienced that range of emotions myself at several times in my half-century walk with Christ.

But at the time, none of us – including Naomi – had been able to read the next page or two of life. In Naomi’s case, the next pages reveal the incomprehensible truth that her pain and loss would result in the eventual birth of the savior of mankind.

It can be argued that, in God's sovereign will, purpose, and plan, if Naomi and her family had lived normal lifespans in Moab, then Ruth would never have married Boaz in Bethlehem. Then Ruth and Boaz – in the genealogical line of Jesus – would not have had a child named Obed, who later would have a son named Jesse, who himself would later have a son named David, the future king of Israel and in the lineage of Jesus the Christ.

Naomi did not know what God knew. She only knew her bitterness, her loneliness, her deep sorrow – like so many others who cannot see the other side of – shall we say – the cross.

As I thought of Naomi’s story for this message, the story of another nearly unknown woman in the history of Israel came to mind. Her name is Leah. I’ve spoken about her before, and I think this is a good time to revisit that dear woman.

If you’ve read through Genesis, you may remember how Leah lived in the shadow of her younger sister's beauty. You’ll find her story in Genesis 29-30. When Isaac’s son Jacob visited the family, Rachel's beauty captured him. Her beauty consumed him – so much so, he agreed to work her family's farm for seven years as payment to marry her. But on the eve of the seventh anniversary, Rachel's family pulled a bait and switch. When the new groom awakened the next morning, he found himself lying next to Leah. Dull, unattractive Leah.

If Jacob still wanted Rachel, he'd have to work another seven years.

He agreed to do so, but it's not difficult to imagine how Leah felt – unloved, unwanted, knowing her family had to trick Jacob into her marriage bed.

Yet, the story grows more poignant. Scripture tells us: “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb . . . and (she) gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now’" (Genesis 29:31-32).

Can you not almost hear the wistful yearning in her voice, "Now my husband will love me."

Leah was not the first woman to hope, "If I have his child, he will love me." But that's not the way love works.

Yet ever the optimist, Leah conceived again. And then again. "Now at last my husband will become attached to me," she said, "because I have borne him three sons."

But even after six sons, Rachel remained the proverbial light in Jacob's eyes while Leah hungered for her husband's embrace. She longed for his touch, for a kind word and to know in the core of her being she was loved. And Jacob remained deaf to her heartache and blind to her sorrow.

God, however, knew it all – and that is the wonderful message of this story.

I'd read this story in Genesis dozens of times, but now my eyes froze at the list of Leah's six sons, and then refocused on two: Levi and Judah.

Not only was Leah unaware God was with her in Rachel's shadow, she also didn't know eternity would measure life and death through her offspring – and not Rachel's.

Levi and Judah: ancestors of Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Ezra, Ezekiel, Zechariah. All of Israel's religious and political leaders would spring from her womb.

 

Including Jesus the Messiah.

"For I know the plans that I have for you," God tells us through Jeremiah, another of Leah's descendants, "plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).

Hope.

As I said a little earlier in this message, St. Paul tells us the things written in Scripture are for our benefit, and through the encouragement of God's word we can have hope (Romans 15:4). That's what Leah's story is all about. It’s what Naomi’s story is all about.

 

And it is what YOUR story is all about: Hope. Great, ineffable hope. It’s about God in our shadows, about God who loves us, and who knows our deepest hurts. And it’s the story of how God can turn our loss, our rejection, our bitterness, our heartbreak into something of immeasurable and eternal value for those who trust God – even when things are dark.

 

Christian, listen! The sovereign God of all creation will even take the sins of others and turn them into something of eternal value. Remember, God used the sin of Joseph’s brothers to save the nation from extinction (Genesis 50:20). And God used the sin of the religious leaders and the mob on Mt Calvary to save the world.

 

Do you really think the sovereign God has forgotten you or me? Do you think He is not going to use the things that have hurt us, that have caused us deep pain and loss – even to this very day – do you think He’s not going to use those very things to bring good into our lives and into the kingdom?

Oh we of little faith.

When Evening Falls

My year-old Bichon awakened with a shriek at 1:30 in the morning. I threw off my covers and turned on the light. He was standing in his crate, shivering. Whining. His eyes fixed on mine. I got to my knees and gently coaxed him to me. When he left the crate, I snuggled him to my chest, and as we rocked back and forth, I whispered in his ear, “You’ve had a bad dream.”

 

It was not long before Frenchie was back in his crate, settling down to go back to sleep.

 

In the morning, as I replayed what happened a few hours earlier, the distant memory of one of Paul Simon’s songs floated into my thoughts.

 

“When you're weary, feeling small. When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all. I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough, and friends just can't be found, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.”

 

“When you're down and out, when you're on the street. When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you. I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes, and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.”

 

I don’t know what Simon was thinking when he wrote those lyrics back in 1969, but at 7:00 that morning, I could tell you what they meant to me:

 

I love Frenchie. And though he startled me from sleep, I was glad to comfort him. But OH! God's love for me and for you cannot begin to compare with our love for anything or anyone in this life. His longing to rock us, to comfort us -- how can we even compare such a difference in the same paragraph?

 

And it is because He loves us so incredibly much, it is because He longs to comfort us that when we’re weary, when we’re feeling small, when tears are in our eyes – He comes to us.

 

When friends cannot be found, when darkness falls across our lives, when pain is all around – He comes to us. On His knees, He bends down and coaxes us, gently tugging us to Himself. To hold us. To comfort us. To rock us.

 

Whatever our need, whatever our fears, whatever our nightmares – Jesus lays Himself down for us like a bridge over our troubled waters.

 

Listen! He never ceases to coax us into His arms. Hear Him even now whisper to your heart: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

 

 

Hath God Said?

 

Sermon May 22

Hath God Said?

 

 

My text for today is from the third chapter of the book of Genesis. It is this chapter which explains for all with eyes to see and ears to hear why humanity is in the mess it is in.

 

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” (Genesis 3:1-7)

 

At the very beginning of Mankind, Satan implemented a nearly flawless strategy when he introduced the not-so-subtle question into humanity’s psyche. And here has resulted nothing but despair and death and disaster for the human family ever since.

 

What was that strategy? He seduced Eve into questioning God's word, and all humanity has suffered because she got the answer wrong. And the reason humanity STILL suffers is because WE, also, get it wrong.

 

So, the theme for my message today is simple: Has God spoken? What has He said? And why is it important? These are important questions because truth matters. It matters for everything we do and say and think and plan in life – and it matters to our eternal destiny because what we do with truth. And what we DO with God's truth determines where we will spend our forever.

 

You remember from the story of Jesus’ arrest and trial before Pilate, the governor asked Jesus, “What is truth?”  And before Jesus could answer, the man walked away. But you and I must never do that – walk away from truth. After all, Jesus said it in many portions and in many ways that He is the way, the truth and the life. Then He added, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

What is truth? Jesus Himself said to the Father: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17) But Satan will STILL look you squarely in the eye and ask, “Has God said?”

 

I have spoken on this subject of Biblical inerrancy and infallibility dozens of times and in many contexts. And I purposely bring up the issue again today because, as St Peter wrote to his readers: “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder . . ..” (2 Peter 1:12-13)

 

And it was Martin Luther who accurately opined, “We need to hear the gospel every day because we forget the gospel every day.”

 

This subject of the inerrancy, full inspiration and infallibility of Scripture is as critical to our eternal destiny as is our faith in the atonement of the Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross. Why is that? Because unless we base our lives on the solid rock of biblical in errancy then everything we believe will stand on shifting and shifting sand. Notice Jesus’ warning at the end of the Sermon on the Mount:

 

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

 

We will NEVER have a strong house – an impregnable haven – unless we build our faith on the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of God's word. But what do we mean by inspired, inerrant and infallible?

 

Inspiration deals with the authority of the Bible. Inspiration means that “God breathed out” the words of the scripture, using human writers as His instruments. This does NOT mean the writers robotically wrote what God dictated. Not at all. What inspiration means is that God ‘moved’ on these writers who then wrote as God guided them, using their personalities, their educational levels, their experiences, even their particular grammar and rules of language. However, the final result of their writing was the fully and final authoritative word of God.

Inerrancy means that, in the original manuscripts written by the hand of the original authors, such as Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Matthew, John, Paul, or Peter – in the original manuscripts the Bible is without error. Period. This includes references to geography, history, science and theology. The entire Bible, from Genesis through Revelation does not declare anything to be true that is, in fact, not true.

 

There are multiple texts with attest to the inerrancy of God's word, but let’s look only two: Proverbs 30: Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” (30:5-6). And 2 Timothy 3:16-17, written by the former Pharisee and strict adherent to the Old Testament Law: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

 

So, that’s what inspiration and inerrancy mean. And what about the doctrine of Infallibility?

 

Infallibility means that something is incapable of being wrong. Therefore, the Scriptures are not only fully and finally authoritative when it comes to life and lifestyle, but God's laws are permanently binding on humanity. What was true of morality in the 15^th century BC is just as true in the 21^st century AD. When the Lord Jesus said, “the Scripture cannot be broken,” He meant it. And when He said further that not even a jot or tittle can pass away until all is fulfilled, He was not joking (John 10:34-35, Matthew 5:18).

 

The reason this doctrine of inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility is so vital to our salvation is that if we cannot trust the word of God to BE the inerrant word of God, then who gets to decide what is TRUTH about anything related to faith and morals, about sin and judgment? As the Psalmist wrote, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)

If the Bible is not trustworthy, then on what do we base our belief about salvation? About holy lifestyles? If the Scripture is unreliable, then how can we be sure of ANYTHING Christians have believed and the Church has taught since the first century?

 

For example, if the history of the nations as contained in the Bible is wrong, how can we be sure its moral teaching is correct? If names and dates are proven wrong, then what else will eventually be proven wrong? Will it be the Incarnation wherein Almighty Jehovah God took on human flesh? Or the Virgin Birth of Jesus? Did Jesus’ death on the cross REALLY purchase our reconciliation with the Father? Did Jesus die and then physically rise from the dead? Is He really going to return for His own who follow Him as their Lord? We cannot have a reliable Savior without a fully reliable Scripture.

 

Furthermore, if we cannot trust the Bible to be the FINAL authoritative word of God, then we open ourselves to the introduction of other so-called holy books promulgated and promoted by other groups – whether they call themselves Christian or not is irrelevant. We will look at that point in another moment.

 

By the way, the point about the historic view of the Christian church is not one to gloss over. From the beginning of the Church in the days of the Acts of the Apostles, Satan has introduced other ‘scriptures’ to humanity to dilute and distract from the eternal AND SALVIFIC truths of God's word. From the ancient Gnostics to the present time, false teachers – some of whom call themselves Christians – have come up with their own bibles that – they say – augment and supplement God's word.

 

Do not believe them. Do not follow them. There is good reason St. Paul wrote under the infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Gal 1:8-9)

The Bible we hold in our hands is fully God-breathed, inerrant, and infallible. But Satan is still busy with His original strategy, seducing us to question God's word – even to the year 2022. For example:

 

When a well-known and respected Catholic bishop, Robert Barron of California cannot say for certain if hell exists, or if anyone is in hell, then we have a significant error taught by the man who has thousands of followers. If he is in clearly wrong about the unambiguous teaching of Scripture on that point, then on what other points of Scripture is he dead wrong?

 

When we cast doubt as to the full and final authority of Scripture’s infallibility and inerrancy regarding faith and morals, then we end up following men like popular spiritual author Richard Rohr, who teaches a New Age heretical Christ, or we will follow some local pastors I have heard in the last 18 months – one of whom preached from the pulpit that the universe is eternal – a tenet of pantheism and Hinduism; or another pastor who tells his congregation that homosexuality is a legitimate sexual expression.

 

I recently had a brief discussion with a misguided Christian on a Facebook page who told me the Church has hidden from us important books. When I gently challenged her to clarify what she meant, she ended the discussion, but I suspect she was referring to the spurious and heretical books like the so-called “Gospel of Thomas” or the “Apocrypha of Peter” or the “Infancy Narratives.”

 

One should EXPECT some to come up with their own versions of inerrant Scripture so they can ignore the full and timeless authority of God's word. As early as Acts 20, even Paul warned the clergy in the Ephesian church: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30). And Jude warned the flock of God: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)

 

Listen, my brothers and sisters in Christ, as I have said repeatedly today – and I repeat myself because of the urgency of this message – if the Bible is not fully inerrant, infallible, and inspired by God, and if we need other religious books and tablets to update God's eternal truths, then who decides what is morally binding on us in the 21st-century, and what is not? You? Me? Is that not the same temptation to self-deification that Satan seduced Eve with?

When the early church was establishing true Christian doctrine, the apostles ALWAYS appealed to Scripture – which in their case was the Old Testament. According to some conservative scholars, the New Testament writers quote or allude to more than 1000 Old Testament passages.

 

One thousand passages!

 

Is it any wonder St Paul told the Christians in Rome: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

 
So, when someone with a reputation such as that at Andy Stanley tells his congregation to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament as if the Old Testament no longer is binding on the Christian, then as popular as the man may be, he’s teaching heresy.

 

I will say it again: When ANYONE tells his congregation to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament as if the Old Testament no longer is binding on the Christian, then as popular as the man or woman might be, he’s teaching heresy.

 

Do you understand why it is so important to be literate in the Bible.  Do not simply be content to have someone tell us what the Bible says. We have to be like the Bereans who examined the Scriptures daily to verify what the great Paul was teaching (Acts17). How much more must we examine what lesser men and women are teaching from the Bible.

Listen, we are not too old for Satan to give up on us. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Word of God AND the historic teaching of the Church. Beware – beware of modern teachers, regardless of the reputation and credentials, if distort, dilute, and pervert God's fully inspired, inerrant, and infallible word.

 

If we do not believe the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the ONLY ONLY ONLY fully authoritative word of God, then we open ourselves to Satan’s original lie to Eve – and nothing but disaster and catastrophe will be our final end.